Have you ever been asked what the Humanities are good for?

[whatthehey]

50. Sure - but again these are the reflexive priorities I mentioned above

Exposure to them in both formal and informal education will be important to you if breadth of knowledge and cultural appreciation is important to you. I get that. You get that. I think it's fun knowing who was Pope in 1154 or the pederastic obsessions of Tchaikovsky or exactly why the Byzantine Empire fell in 1453 but not before. But that's because I'm a dilettante intellectually. Even where I did get degrees I never became an expert in anything, but concentrated on following a broad curiosity knowing a bit, either a small or large but never huge bit, about as many things as I could. I'm still at it.

But to me that means it's just subjective fun. If I were a golfer I'd enjoy myself hitting golf balls but I'm not. I'm a casual gatherer and synthesizer of bits of learning discovered and exposited by specialists. But from a utilitarian point of view what use is that to me? Beyond pleasure? Sweet FA. I can either impress or annoy the hell out of acquaintances depending on their level of curiosity, and compete fairly well in trivia events that are not dominated by pop culture. That's about it. The Humanities didn't make me able to influence or drive social change, because I haven't (and many who have lack much knowledge in the area). They didn't make me an effective critical thinker because even though I flatter myself into believing I have reasonable enough skill there, the only way those skills are applied is in a quantitative industrial environment where a STEM education has a broader toolkit. On a purely crass level, I get paid because I can solve math problems and apply them to people and assembly lines. I'd have saved time going straight into the MBA thing. Do I wish I had? Hell no, like I said I enjoy broad awareness and knowledge, and that's enough for me. I don't want to justify Humanities knowledge by utility, because to me their uitility is reflexive. They will be important to you if you want knowledge and culktural appreciation in and of themselves, not for what they will grant you the skillset to achieve.